THERE was drama at Kafue’s Industrial Police Post after a Lusaka businessman attempted to kick Edith Nawakwi for trying to open his truck containing sausages believed to be Legana counterfeits.
Nawakwi, proprietor of Legana Investments Limited, has filed a complaint against a Lusaka-based firm, Humility Investments, for allegedly counterfeiting her company’s sausages in Kafue.
Nawakwi, the FDD president, arrived at Industrial Police Post in Kafue Estates area around 10:00 hours yesterday and filed a complaint with the officer-in-charge.
A light container truck, registration number BAH 3327, carrying Humility Investments sausages was found parked at the police post.
A source familiar with the development revealed that the vehicle was impounded by police on Tuesday night after a tip-off.
Three Humility Investments personnel, who were found in the vehicle, spent a night in police custody.

After spending over 30 minutes in the Officer-In-Charge’s office, Nawakwi explained that many customers in Kafue were calling Legana Investments to complain about the unusual taste of the company’s alleged sausages.

“We’ve been receiving complaints from Kafue residents and customers that the sausages which they are buying doesn’t taste like Legana and this has been going on for like three months and it got us very worried. We lodged a complaint initially at Woodlands Police Station, which complaint was to the extent that we believed there are people who are trading under the name of Legana without our permission. We did make some breakthroughs at that time but we didn’t have concrete evidence,” Nawakwi said in an interview.
“In the last couple of weeks, Kafue residents, who are usually our customers, have been calling to say ‘look, the sausages which you are selling to Kafue on mobile sales don’t taste like Legana. What’s going on?’ So, we decided to follow it up [because] we got specific tips that there is a butchery called Humility Butchery or something like that, who send in an unlabelled truck every Tuesday and Friday in the evening. So, we followed it up yesterday (on Tuesday) at 18:00 hours and to our surprise, we found out that it was true.”
She said the firm that was allegedly selling Legana sausages went to Kafue and sold the product whose production source was unknown.
“These people come to Kafue with sausages which we don’t even know where they make it from and they say ‘these sausages have been made by Legana Investments and specifically Edith Nawakwi. When people mention my name, people are so trusting of Edith Nawakwi and they buy. We were shocked to find out that this company belongs to Mr and Mrs Mwanza,” she said.
A Mr Mwanza and his wife Barbara were also at the police post.
Nawakwi cautioned the public to “look out for unscrupulous traders who want to trade under the name of Legana Investments”.
“We have authorised dealers around the country and they will even show you a receipt. But don’t ever listen to anybody who says to you that ‘these are sausages from Legana’ when they don’t have any evidence. Any of our agents will either have receipts or receipt books. In fact, some of their (Legana authorised distributors) shops are labelled with ‘Legana sold here’.You cannot from nowhere…. My anxiety in this matter is a health issue,” Nawakwi underscored.

And Nawakwi emphasised that she would like to encourage entrepreneurship in Zambia and that if people wanted to make Legana sausages, “they should just approach me openly and I will embrace, support them [because] I have also been supported to start this business.”

“There’s no reason why you should pirate or pretend that you are selling a product from my factory when in fact you are making it from your backyard which is probably not even registered or inspected by the health authorities. Under CAP 372, it’s a serious offence to use a name of a limited company under the companies Act for your own returns. We have to file in returns. [But] the question is does Mr and Mrs Mwanza file in returns to ZRA (Zambia Revenue Authority), do they file in returns to PACRA? Do they meet all the statutory requirements for producing food under the Local Government Act? Have they been to Zambia Bureau of Standards? Does ZEMA (Zambia Environmental Management Agency) inspect them?” Nawakwi wondered.
“There is a whole lot of questions which must be answered by these people who want to pirate other people’s [company] names. It’s wrong and unacceptable and we’ve taken a deliberate step to complain to the police and we are going to make sure that we see this case to its logical conclusion by going to court.”
Upon seeing that his truck was about to be opened, Mwanza yelled: “This is my product and not your product. Do you understand that?”
“So, let us respect one another. I don’t want you to check anything. You understand? I’m very humble but when you disturb me, I go crazy. Iwe leka ukukopa (you, stop filming,) you might make me upset and I kick you. This is my sausage. If I ever see that thing (video) somewhere, it will be bad,” Mwanza said. “I have never traded as Legana! I always trade as Humility Enterprise and the papers are in the vehicle. Listen, you are a president [but] I’m also a president. You understand that? Do you know me? I know you, you are president Nawakwi. I might kick you here.”

At this point, Nawakwi asked Mwanza to stop pointing at her.

“This is not Legana sausage and so why are you selling it as Legana? I don’t want to taste what I haven’t made. Don’t abuse me. Offenders are usually…you kick me!” said Nawakwi.